Wireless telecommunications apparatuses and methods

ABSTRACT

A method of communicating data in a telecommunications system comprising a base station and a plurality of terminals operable to communicate data to and from the base station. The system is configured to transmit downlink signals using downlink resources in a frequency band and in a first time period and the method comprises, upon identification of uplink data to be transmitted by a first terminal of the plurality of terminals, dynamically selecting a set of resources for transmitting the uplink data, wherein selecting the set of resources comprises selecting a subset of the frequency band and a subset of the time period of the downlink resources, the selected set of resources being based on the subset of the frequency band and the subset of the time period.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.16/476,111, filed Jul. 5, 2019, which is a 371 national stage ofinternational application number PCT/EP2017/083899, filed Dec. 20, 2017,and claims priority to European Patent Application No. 17150567.0 filedJan. 6, 2017, wherein the entire contents and disclosure of each of theforegoing applications is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND Field

The present disclosure relates to wireless telecommunicationsapparatuses and methods.

Description of Related Art

The “background” description provided herein is for the purpose ofgenerally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of thepresently named inventors, to the extent it is described in thisbackground section, as well as aspects of the description which may nototherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neitherexpressly or impliedly admitted as prior art against the presentinvention.

Third and fourth generation mobile telecommunication systems, such asthose based on the 3GPP defined UMTS and Long Term Evolution (LTE)architecture, are able to support more sophisticated services thansimple voice and messaging services offered by previous generations ofmobile telecommunication systems. For example, with the improved radiointerface and enhanced data rates provided by LTE systems, a user isable to enjoy high data rate applications such as mobile video streamingand mobile video conferencing that would previously only have beenavailable via a fixed line data connection. The demand to deploy thirdand fourth generation networks is therefore strong and the coverage areaof these networks, i.e. geographic locations where access to thenetworks is possible, is expected to increase rapidly.

Future wireless communications networks will be expected to efficientlysupport communications with a wider range of devices associated with awider range of data traffic profiles and types than current systems areoptimised to support. For example it is expected that future wirelesscommunications networks will efficiently support communications withdevices including reduced complexity devices, machine type communicationdevices, high resolution video displays, virtual reality headsets and soon. Some of these different types of devices may be deployed in verylarge numbers, for example low complexity devices for supporting the“The Internet of Things”, and may typically be associated with thetransmissions of relatively small amounts of data with relatively highlatency tolerance, whereas other types of device, for example supportinghigh-definition video streaming, may be associated with transmissions ofrelatively large amounts of data with relatively low latency tolerance.A single device type might also be associated with different trafficprofiles depending on the applications it is running. For example,different consideration may apply for efficiently supporting dataexchange with a smartphone when it is running a video streamingapplication (high downlink data) as compared to when it is running anInternet browsing application (sporadic uplink and downlink data).

The new Radio Access Technology (RAT) for the next generation of mobilenetworks is expected to operate in a large range of frequencies, fromhundreds of MHz to 100 GHz and it is expected to cover a broad range ofuse case, such as Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), Massive Machine TypeCommunications (mMTC), Ultra Reliable & Low Latency Communications(URLLC).

When using high frequency (e.g. of 28 GHz or more), the mobile networkis expected to operate using Time Division Duplex “TDD” where the entirefrequency band is switched to either downlink or uplink transmissionsfor a time period and can then switch to the other of downlink or uplinktransmissions at a later time period. Typically, the bandwidth isexpected to be very large, for example in the order of hundreds of MHz.

However, it is expected that transmitting uplink signals over largebandwidth is unlikely to utilise the UE power efficiently. Inparticular, the Power Spectral Density (PSD) is expected to be smallsuch that a terminal would be likely to use only a small subset of thespectrum. In most cases, it is likely that allocating the entirebandwidth to uplink transmissions will create inefficiencies in the useof resources.

In some legacy wireless telecommunications networks, such as LTE-basednetworks, transmissions are mostly configured in the Frequency DivisionDuplex “FDD” mode (where different frequencies are used for uplink anddownlink transmissions) while in some cases conventional TDD may also beused. Conventional or legacy systems therefore fail to provide anypointer for trying the address the efficiency problem discussed above.

In view of this, there is expected to be a desire for future wirelesscommunications networks, for example those which may be referred to as5G or new radio (NR) system/new radio access technology (RAT) systems,as well as future iterations/releases of existing systems, toefficiently support uplink transmissions in an arrangement that isotherwise configured to operate in a TDD mode.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure can help address or mitigate at least some of theissues discussed above. Respective aspects and features of the presentdisclosure are defined in the appended claims.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are exemplary, but are notrestrictive, of the present technology. The described embodiments,together with further advantages, will be best understood by referenceto the following detailed description taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete appreciation of the disclosure and many of the attendantadvantages thereof will be readily obtained as the same becomes betterunderstood by reference to the following detailed description whenconsidered in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein likereference numerals designate identical or corresponding parts throughoutthe several views, and wherein:

FIG. 1 schematically represents some aspects of a LTE-type wirelesstelecommunication network which may be configured to operate inaccordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an example of a mobiletelecommunication system with architectural components corresponding tothat of an enhanced New Radio (NR) or 5G network;

FIG. 3 schematically represents some aspects of a wirelesstelecommunications network configured to operate in accordance withcertain embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 schematically represents an example of a transmission mode inaccordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 schematically represents another example of a transmission modein accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 schematically represents a further example of a transmission modein accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 schematically represents yet another example of a transmissionmode in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 schematically represents an example method in accordance withcertain embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 9 schematically represents an example of a transmission mode inaccordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 provides a schematic diagram illustrating some basicfunctionality of a mobile telecommunications network/system 100operating generally in accordance with LTE principles but which may alsosupport other radio access technologies and which may implementembodiments of the disclosure as described herein. Various elements ofFIG. 1 and their respective modes of operation are well-known anddefined in the relevant standards administered by the 3GPP (RTM) body,and also described in many books on the subject, for example, Holma H.and Toskala A [1]. It will be appreciated that operational aspects ofthe telecommunications network which are not specifically describedbelow may be implemented in accordance with any known techniques, forexample according to the relevant standards and previously proposedmodifications and additions to the relevant standards.

The network 100 includes a plurality of base stations 101 connected to acore network 102. Each base station provides a coverage area 103 (i.e. acell) within which data can be communicated to and from terminal devices104. Data is transmitted from base stations 101 to terminal devices 104within their respective coverage areas 103 via a radio downlink. Data istransmitted from terminal devices 104 to the base stations 101 via aradio uplink. The core network 102 routes data to and from the terminaldevices 104 via the respective base stations 101 and provides functionssuch as authentication, mobility management, charging and so on.Terminal devices may also be referred to as mobile stations, userequipment (UE), user terminal, mobile radio, communications device, andso forth. Base stations, which are an example of network infrastructureequipment, may also be referred to as transceiver stations, nodeBs,e-nodeBs, eNB, g-nodeBs, gNB and so forth.

An example configuration of a wireless communications network which usessome of the terminology proposed for NR and 5G is shown in FIG. 2. InFIG. 2 a plurality of transmission and reception points (TRPs) 210 areconnected to distributed control units (DUs) 241, 242 by a connectioninterface represented as a line 216. Each of the TRPs 210is arranged totransmit and receive signals via a wireless access interface within aradio frequency bandwidth available to the wireless communicationsnetwork. Thus within a range for performing radio communications via thewireless access interface, each of the TRPs 210, forms a cell of thewireless communications network as represented by a dashed line 212. Assuch wireless communications devices 214 which are within a radiocommunications range provided by the cells 210 can transmit and receivesignals to and from the TRPs 210 via the wireless access interface. Eachof the distributed control units 241, 242 are connected to a centralunit (CU) 240 via an interface. The central unit 240 is then connectedto the a core network 220 which may contain all other functions requiredto transmit data for communicating to and from the wirelesscommunications devices and the core network 220 may be connected toother networks 230.

The elements of the wireless access network shown in FIG. 2 may operatein a similar way to corresponding elements of an LTE network asdescribed with regard to the example of FIG. 1. It will be appreciatedthat operational aspects of the telecommunications network representedin FIG. 2, and of other networks discussed herein in accordance withembodiments of the disclosure, which are not specifically described (forexample in relation to specific communication protocols and physicalchannels for communicating between different elements) may beimplemented in accordance with any known techniques, for exampleaccording to currently used approaches for implementing such operationalaspects of wireless telecommunications systems, e.g. in accordance withthe relevant standards.

The TRPs 210 of FIG. 2 may in part have a corresponding functionality toa base station or eNodeB of an LTE network. Similarly the communicationsdevices 214 may have a functionality corresponding to UE devices knownfor operation with an LTE network. It will be appreciated therefore thatoperational aspects of a new RAT network (for example in relation tospecific communication protocols and physical channels for communicatingbetween different elements) may be different to those known from LTE orother known mobile telecommunications standards. However, it will alsobe appreciated that each of the core network component, base stationsand terminal devices of a new RAT network will be functionally similarto, respectively, the core network component, base stations and terminaldevices of an LTE wireless communications network.

FIG. 3 schematically shows some further details of a telecommunicationssystem 500 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Thetelecommunications system 500 in this example is based broadly around anLTE-type architecture and the telecommunications system may also supportother radio access technologies, either using the same hardware asrepresented in FIG. 3 with appropriately configured functionality orseparate hardware configured to operate in association with the hardwarerepresented in FIG. 3. Many aspects of the operation of thetelecommunications system/network 500 are known and understood and arenot described here in detail in the interest of brevity. Operationalaspects of the telecommunications system 500 which are not specificallydescribed herein may be implemented in accordance with any knowntechniques, for example according to the current LTE-standards and otherproposals for operating wireless telecommunications systems.

The telecommunications system 500 comprises a core network part (evolvedpacket core) 502 coupled to a radio network part. The radio network partcomprises a base station (evolved-nodeB) 504 coupled to a terminaldevice 508. In this example, only one base station 504 and one terminaldevice 508 are represented in FIG. 3. However, it will of course beappreciated that in practice the radio network part will typicallycomprise a plurality of base stations serving a larger number ofterminal devices across various communication cells, as well aspotentially including transceiver stations supporting radiocommunications with terminal devices on cells operating in accordancewith other radio access technologies, such as UTRAN, GERAN, WLAN or a 5Gnew RAT. However, only a single base station and terminal device areshown in FIG. 3 in the interests of simplicity.

The terminal device 508 is arranged to communicate data to and from thebase station (transceiver station) 504. The base station is in turncommunicatively connected to a serving gateway, S-GW, (not shown) in thecore network part which is arranged to perform routing and management ofmobile communications services to the terminal device in thetelecommunications system 500 via the base station 504. In order tomaintain mobility management and connectivity, the core network part 502also includes a mobility management entity, MME, (not shown) whichmanages the enhanced packet service,

EPS, connections with the terminal device 508 operating in thecommunications system based on subscriber information stored in a homesubscriber server, HSS. Other network components in the core network(also not shown for simplicity) include a policy charging and resourcefunction, PCRF, and a packet data network gateway, PDN-GW, whichprovides a connection from the core network part 502 to an externalpacket data network, for example the Internet. As noted above, theoperation of the various elements of the communications system 500 shownin FIG. 3 may be conventional apart from where modified to providefunctionality in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosureas discussed herein. It will be appreciated embodiments of the inventionmay in general be implemented in wireless communications systemsoperating in accordance with different radio access technologies, forexample , who one or more of UTRAN, GERAN, WLAN or a 5G new RAT (NR)networks, and these other radio access technologies will not necessarilyincorporate the same network infrastructure components as for an LTEimplementation (e.g. there may be no serving gateway in new RATnetworks).

The terminal device 508 is adapted to support operations in accordancewith embodiments of the present disclosure when communicating with thebase station 504 as discussed further herein. The terminal device 508comprises transceiver circuitry 508a (which may also be referred to as atransceiver/transceiver unit) for transmission and reception of wirelesssignals and processor circuitry 508b (which may also be referred to as aprocessor/processor unit) configured to control the terminal device 508.The processor circuitry 508b may comprise various sub-units/sub-circuitsfor providing functionality in accordance with embodiments of thepresent disclosure as described herein. These sub-units may beimplemented as discrete hardware elements or as appropriately configuredfunctions of the processor circuitry. Thus the processor circuitry 508bmay comprise circuitry which is suitably configured/programmed toprovide the desired functionality described herein using conventionalprogramming/configuration techniques for equipment in wirelesstelecommunications systems. The transceiver circuitry 508a and theprocessor circuitry 508a are schematically shown in FIG. 3 as separateelements for ease of representation. However, it will be appreciatedthat the functionality of these circuitry elements can be provided invarious different ways, for example using one or more suitablyprogrammed programmable computer(s), or one or more suitably configuredapplication-specific integrated circuit(s)/circuitry/chip(s)/chipset(s).It will be appreciated the terminal device 508 will in general comprisevarious other elements associated with its operating functionality, forexample a power source, user interface, and so forth, but these are notshown in FIG. 3 in the interests of simplicity.

The base station 504 comprises transceiver circuitry 504 a (which mayalso be referred to as a transceiver/transceiver unit) for transmissionand reception of wireless signals and processor circuitry 504 b (whichmay also be referred to as a processor/processor unit) configured tocontrol the base station 504 to operate in accordance with embodimentsof the present disclosure as described herein. The processor circuitry504 b may again comprise various sub-units, such as a scheduling unit,for providing functionality in accordance with embodiments of thepresent disclosure as explained further below. These sub-units may beimplemented as discrete hardware elements or as appropriately configuredfunctions of the processor circuitry. Thus, the processor circuitry 504b may comprise circuitry which is suitably configured/programmed toprovide the desired functionality described herein using conventionalprogramming/configuration techniques for equipment in wirelesstelecommunications systems. The transceiver circuitry 504 a and theprocessor circuitry 504 b are schematically shown in FIG. 3 as separateelements for ease of representation. However, it will be appreciatedthat the functionality of these circuitry elements can be provided invarious different ways, for example using one or more suitablyprogrammed programmable computer(s), or one or more suitably configuredapplication-specific integrated circuit(s)/circuitry/chip(s)/chipset(s).It will be appreciated the base station 504 will in general comprisevarious other elements associated with its operating functionality, suchas a scheduler. For example, although not shown in FIG. 3 forsimplicity, the processor circuitry 504 b may comprise schedulingcircuitry, that is to say the processor circuitry 504 b may beconfigured/programmed to provide the scheduling function for the basestation 504.

It has been proposed that a wireless communications interface providedto a future wireless communications network may be operating with highfrequency carriers such as those within a millimetre waveband, forexample with a large frequency range between 20 GHz and 100 GHz toenable a large frequency bandwidth, for example with a few hundred MHzto 1 GHz, to be used offering very high throughput for eMBB services andsupport large capacity. However, operation in such large bandwidth in aTDD mode is likely to result in a relatively inefficient use ofresources for uplink transmissions.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a transmission mode in accordance withcertain embodiments of the present disclosure. In this example, ratherthan using a full TDD more (where uplink and downlink transmissions areseparated in time) or a full FDD mode (where uplink and downlinktransmissions are separated in frequencies), the system operates in adynamic mode where, if appropriate, uplink transmissions are fullyseparated in neither time nor frequency. As can be seen in FIG. 4, thedownlink resources are allocated from resources in a frequency band(“system bandwidth” in FIG. 4) and from a time period or time slot.While some uplink transmission resources can be transmitted in the samefrequency band but in a difference time period (e.g. using conventionalTDD), at least some of the uplink transmissions can be transmitted usingresources within the frequency band and the time period. In this modethat corresponds to neither TDD nor FDD, the spectral efficiency of thenetwork can be improved compared to the expected efficiency when using avery large bandwidth in a TDD mode.

As a result, only a subset of the frequency and/or time resources isused in the uplink whilst the rest of the resources remain for use fordownlink transmissions. This is illustrated in FIG. 4 where the systembandwidth is mostly used for downlink signals with subsets of resourceoccasionally used for uplink signals. The uplink resource allocation canbe made as deemed appropriate by the entity responsible for resourceallocation (most likely to gNB). As a result, it can be distributed infrequency and/or time within the downlink resources or contiguous intime and/or frequency as shown in FIG. 4. The uplink resourcesillustrated can be used for uplink signals from different terminals. Asmentioned above, it is expected that in most cases, the uplink resourceswithin a set of downlink resources will be allocated by the gNB and theallocation can be signalled to one or more terminals, for example usingDownlink Control Information (DCI).

FIG. 5 illustrates another example of a transmission mode in accordancewith certain embodiments of the present disclosure. In this example, oneor more frequency guard bands are inserted around each of the uplinkresources to reduce interference between the uplink and downlink. In theexample of FIG. 5, guardbands are used at both edges of the uplinkfrequency resources. In this example, a set of resources can be selectedfrom the downlink resources and some of the resources may be allocatedto one or more terminals for uplink transmissions and the remainder maybe used as guardbands for isolating the uplink transmissions from theuplink transmissions.

In some examples, the guard period may also comprise resources at theedges of the uplink time resources. Like for the frequency guardband, aguard period may be useful for isolating the uplink and downlinktransmissions from a time perspective. This time guard period can beused for example for half duplex terminals to switch between downlinkand uplink and can be used for timing advance where a terminal switchingfrom downlink to uplink needs to transmit the uplink early to compensatefor propagation delay (such that it arrives at the boundary of the timeslot at the base station).

The guardband and/or guard period parameters such as the size infrequency and/or time can in some examples be predefined or, in otherexamples, configured by the gNB. It is noteworthy that while in someexamples the location of the guard band/period may be implicitly orexplicitly notified or known to the terminals of the gNB, in otherexamples the guard bands/periods can be created by an appropriatescheduling from the gNB. For example, to create a guard band/period, thegNB can ensure that no uplink or downlink transmissions are schedules ina selected time and/or frequency region of the (otherwise) downlinkresources. The guard band/period can also be activated or deactivatedfor example, if the uplink transmit power is less than a predefinedthreshold, a guard band/period is not used—otherwise it is used.

It is noteworthy that while the base station may then operate for uplinkand downlink transmissions at the same time, in some examples the UE isconfigured in a TDD manner only. Namely, the terminal can then beconfigured such that when it is transmitting in the uplink, it is notreceiving signals in the downlink at the same time and when it isreceiving signals in the downlink, it is not transmitting in the uplinkat the same time. This enables a simpler hardware implementation of theterminal then simultaneous uplink and downlink communications in asingle terminal. That is, the terminal may then only need a single RadioFrequency (RF) chain at any point in time, to either transmit orreceive. In such an example, the base station may either be made awareof the terminal capability or, if for example it does not know theterminal's capability or as a default setting, assume that the terminalis not capable of simultaneous uplink and downlink transmissions. As aresult, the base station can then schedule uplink transmissions for aterminal in the set of downlink resources such that it does not coincide(in time) with a downlink transmission for the same terminal.

In accordance with the present disclosure, a terminal that is beingallocated uplink resources in an otherwise set of downlink resources,the terminal is notified of the resources selected for the uplinktransmission. In some cases where a guardband is used, the terminal maybe notified of either or both of the uplink resources without theguardband and the uplink resources with the guardband. Where theterminal is notified of resources that include the guardband, theterminal can derive from this the actual uplink resources without theguardband using one or more, guardband information received from thebase station and one or more pre-configured parameters. For example,pre-configured parameters can include a default fixed time and/orfrequency size, a time and/or frequency dimension that is based on oneor more: frequency bandwidth, a frequency (e.g. min, max, average of abandwidth), location of signals in the downlink (the guardband may forexample depend on where reference signals are transmitted in thedownlink so as to minimise disruption to downlink transmissions).

In some examples, the frequency resources that are used for one or moreuplink transmissions can be indicated not only to the one or moreterminal for which the uplink resources allocations have been allocated,but also other terminals that are receiving downlink signals. Forexample, this indication can be broadcasted to all terminals served bythe base station (in some instances this can be achieved via a broadcastcontrol channel that is located in a known location within thetime/frequency resources of the subframe or other relevant time period)or it can notified using dedicated signalling, such as the DCI.

In some instances, the downlink reception of a first terminal may sufferfrom interferences with the uplink transmission of a second terminaland, if the first terminal is aware of the interference, it can attemptto take ameliorative steps when receiving signals in the downlink. Forexample FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a transmission mode inaccordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure wherein afirst terminal UE1 receives a downlink transmission that may interferewith uplink transmissions from a second terminal UE2. This is caused byUE1 receiving in the downlink using first downlink resources while asubset of UE1's frequency and time resources are allocated for UE2 totransmit in the uplink. The gNB can signal to UE1 the uplink resourcesoccupied by UE2 and, depending on the terminal configuration anddepending on whether the resources allocated for the uplinktransmissions are still used for downlink transmissions at the sametime, UE1 can attempt to perform interference cancellation on the uplinkresources, or can puncture the DL allocation that it is receiving in theregion of the UL allocation to UE2 so as to receive the downlinktransmission from the downlink resources allocated to UE1 except for theresources allocated to UE2.

It is noteworthy that even in cases where there is no actual overlapbetween the downlink and uplink transmissions (e.g. in the illustrationof FIG. 6, where the base station does not transmit downlink signals inthe resources allocated for UE2's uplink transmissions), it may beuseful to signal to UE1 (and/or to any other UE served or within rangeof the base station) that there is an uplink transmission from UE2 inthese resources. It can also be indicated that the uplink transmissionsis a non-overlapping one, if appropriate. This information can forexample be used by UE1 or any other relevant terminal when using theirdecoding function, such that this function takes into account thecorruption to the downlink of the uplink signal from UE2—for example,when performing one or more channel estimation functions, terminal UE1may ignore reference signals from the region that is corrupted by theuplink transmission from terminal UE2.

As mentioned above, in some case there won't be any overlap betweenuplink and downlink transmissions in one or more of the resourcesselected from a set of downlink resources and allocated for the uplinktransmissions while in other cases there will be an overlap between thetwo. For example, the structure of the uplink signals can be designed tobe sufficiently different to the structure of the downlink signals tofacilitate the determination by a terminal that a downlink signal thatit is being receiving is being corrupted by an uplink signal. On thistopic, the reader is directed to the content of European application EP16198538.7 filed 11 Nov. 2016 by the same applicant and entitled“Wireless Telecommunications Apparatus and Methods”, the entire contentof which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIG. 7 illustrates yet another example of a transmission mode inaccordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure. Aterminal may rely on one or more downlink signals in order to performsome essential functions, such as the monitoring of cell specificreference signals (e.g. for the purposes of frequency tracking) and/orthe monitoring of control channels (e.g. the Physical Downlink ControlCHannel “PDCCH”). It may be beneficial to shield such signals fromcorruption arising from a collision with uplink transmissions.Accordingly, in example of present disclosure and as illustrated in FIG.7, some resources may be reserved so that they are only used fordownlink transmissions while the remainder of the set of downlinkresources may be used to transmit uplink signals, if appropriate. Inother words, outside of these reserved downlink resources, the resourcesmay be dynamically allocated to either uplink or downlink transmissions.

In the example of FIG. 7, a central control region always operates inthe downlink and can be used to transmit one or more of cell-specificreference signals (e.g. to enable the terminals to maintain frequencytracking and perform channel estimation), synchronisation signals (e.g.to enable the terminals to performs aspects of time/frequencyacquisition and tracking) and control signalling (for example dedicatedcontrol channel signalling and broadcast control channel signalling).The resources outside the control region can be flexibly allocated aseither downlink or uplink transmissions as discussed above. Accordingly,the resources selected from a set of downlink resources for an uplinktransmission are selected from a one or more frequency ranges within thefrequency range for the set of the downlink resources, wherein the oneor more frequency ranges do not completely overlap with the frequencyrange for the set of downlink resources.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example method in accordance with certainembodiments of the present disclosure. First, at step S801, uplink datato be transmitted by a first terminal is identified. This may forexample be identified following a random access procedure initiated bythe first terminal or using any other appropriate method (e.g. if thebase station is aware of a periodic transmission from a terminal). Then,at S802, upon this identification, a set of resources is dynamicallyselected from a set of downlink resources and based on a selection of asubset of the frequency band for downlink transmissions and of a subsetof a time period for downlink transmissions. Once the uplink resourceshave been selected, the first terminal is notified of the dynamicallyselected set of resources at S803. Once the terminal has received thenotification, it can transmit uplink data using the selected set ofresources (S804). Accordingly, the system enables the communication ofuplink data without switching the entire system bandwidth from downlinkto uplink as it would be expected in an otherwise TDD operation modewhere uplink data is due to be transmitted.

While the present disclosure has been presented in view of thetechnologies used in the next generation of mobile networks (also called5G, NR, etc.), it is also applicable to 4G (e.g. LTE) technologies andin particular to the arrangements being put in place for NR-LTEinterworking. It is expected that these interworking arrangements willbe used for some of the initial deployments of NR using highfrequencies. In such a case, the LTE network would provide the coverageand NR would supplement the throughput provided by the LTE network.Typically this supplement would be used in the downlink. LTE networksconventionally use FDD rather than TDD, while the NR technology used tosupplement the LTE network is expected to use TDD. The TDD band of theNR network can employ flexible and dynamical allocation of resources asdescribed in this invention. For such an operation, the network mayattempt to minimise uplink transmissions with a view to reducinginter-cell interference (uplink from one cell interfering with downlinkof another cell) and intra-cell interference (where uplink from one UEinterferes with downlink of another UE in the same cell). In otherwords, the teachings and the techniques discussed herein may be used ina pure 5G/NR network or may be used in a network implementing both4G/LTE and 5G/NR technologies.

In an example implementation of NR-LTE interworking, the uplink NRtransmission sent using the techniques discussed herein can berestricted to only Uplink Control Information (UCI). The UCI is used fortransmitting uplink physical control information such as HARQ-ACK, CSI(Channel State Information) and PMI (Physical Matrix Index). Otheruplink data can be transmitted using conventional LTE. For example, incases where there is large amount of downlink traffic being transmittedor to be transmitted, restricting uplink transmission in downlinkresources to transmitting UCI would minimise the uplink use on theotherwise downlink bandwidth—thereby ensure that the uplinktransmissions have a limited negative impact on the downlinktransmissions.

In another embodiment of the NR-LTE interworking operation, a TransportBlock size (TBS) threshold TTBS can be configured for the terminal. Thisthreshold can be used as follows: if the TBS is above the TTBSthreshold, then the uplink transmission is sent using LTE otherwise itis transmitted using NR. This example is also applicable for NR single-or multi-carrier operation. Accordingly, the techniques discussed can beused when the amount of uplink data is minimal and, if the amount ofuplink data is relatively substantial (i.e. more than a threshold), itcan be sent in a conventional manner using LTE uplink resources. As inthe above example, this could be useful when there is a relatively heavydownlink traffic so as to reduce the impact of the uplink transmissionson the downlink transmissions.

In another example, some higher layer message flows (or higher layermessage elements) can be sent using LTE while other types of messagesare transmitted using NR. For example, RLC/PDCP/TCPacknowledgement/control signalling may be transmitted on the NR uplinkwhile user data (e.g. from an application) can be transmitted on the LTEuplink. This would also assist in minimising the impact of the uplinktransmissions on the downlink transmissions in particular when a largeproportion of the downlink resources are used for downlinktransmissions.

As the skilled person will recognise, periodic uplink transmissions cansometimes be sent in NR (for example to enable the gNB to derive channelsounding measurements). In an example of the present disclosure, whenthe terminal has small amounts of uplink data to send (e.g. UCI) attimes that coincide with these periodic transmissions, such data istransmitted using NR using the techniques of the present disclosure ifappropriate. Otherwise (if for example the size of the data exceeds athreshold), such data can be transmitted using the LTE network.

In an example of the disclosure, the gNB instructs the UE whether tosend data on the NR carrier or the LTE carrier. If the UE has smallamounts of data to send and the gNB needs to receive an UL signal on theNR carrier in order to sound the channel on NR, the gNB can for exampledecide to instruct the UE to send the UL data on the NR carrier. Theinstruction can be sent on a downlink control channel signalling, suchas the DCI.

Returning to NR networks (whether operating independently or incombination with an LTE network), it is also expected that there will beNR multi-carrier operation and the techniques discussed in the presentdisclosure can be used in a multi carrier mode, wherein one, some or allof the carriers can implement the techniques discussed herein.

In NR multi-carrier operation, certain higher layer message flows can besent using lower frequency carrier (e.g. <6 GHz), otherwise they aretransmitted using the higher frequency carrier (e.g. >28 GHz). Inaccordance with the present disclosure, transmissions using higherfrequencies would be expected to employ a flexible operation mode asdiscussed herein whilst those at lower frequencies would be expected toused conventional TDD or FDD. In particular, higher frequency carrierscan be expected to have a larger system bandwidth compared to lowerfrequency carriers. As a result the teachings of the present disclosureaiming at improving the efficiency of an otherwise TDD mode (where theentire system bandwidth would have to be switched to uplink at certaintimes) can be found to be more useful with higher frequency carriers.

In an example of the present disclosure, a terminal is equipped with aself-interference cancellation capability (e.g. an internal RFcancellation and/or baseband cancellation of the terminal) which can betaken into account when implementing the techniques discussed herein.For example, a conventional FDD terminal without a self-interferencecancellation support may be able to separate uplink signals fromdownlink signals with the use of a duplexer (such as a Surface AcousticWave “SAW” filter) configured to operate on separate centre frequenciesfor the uplink and downlink signals. For example, in some 3GPP FDDsystems, there can be a 190 MHz gap between the two frequencies (forexample downlink at 2110-2170 MHz and uplink at 1920-1980 MHz). If thereis no gap between uplink and downlink, the terminal may struggle toseparate the uplink and downlink from a frequency perspective.Therefore, self-cancellation techniques can be particularly useful forNR technologies because these technologies may require more flexibleduplex operation modes and/or uplink-downlink allocation modes, as forexample proposed herein. While a guardband may be used (see above), onother examples a terminal may support self-cancellation techniqueswherein the terminal can cancel an interfering signal without a duplexerbut with the knowledge of its own transmission instead. In general, theconventional uplink/downlink separation with the use of a duplexer isexpected to provide better isolation capabilities compared toself-cancellation techniques without the use of a duplexer. It isnoteworthy that in a TDD mode, a diplexer (which can be equivalent toduplexer in FDD) has also very good isolation capabilities compared toself-cancellation techniques. While this can be useful, and while aguardband may also be useful, in some cases, the limitations of theself-cancelling capability may not enable an accurate decoding of thetransmissions. In particular, when a terminal transmit uplink signals ata maximum power or at a power close to the maximum power (for examplewithin a certain range close to the maximum power), such decoding may bechallenging. Accordingly, in some examples, if the uplink transmissionpower of a terminal is above a predefined threshold (which is expectedto be relatively close to the maximum transmission power), the terminalswitches (or requests to switch, or is automatically switched, asappropriate) to conventional TDD operation, rather than use a dynamicuplink allocation in a set of TDD downlink resources. In such a case,the diplexer (for example an RF switch) in a TDD operation mode will notsuffer from interference and will be expected to be able to isolate thesignals.

In summary, this can provide a TDD fall-back option if it is determinedthat self-cancellation capabilities of the terminal are not enough tosupport the flexible mode discussed herein. These teachings can applyequally to FDD and a FDD fall-back option may be provided. However, itis noteworthy that as one of the benefit of self-cancellation is thatthe terminal may be made less reliant on the duplexer (e.g. SAW filter)which is high cost RF component. In view of this, a TDD fall-back optionis likely to be preferred over an FDD fall-back option and is expectedto provide a relatively reasonable cost and complexity for the terminal.

It is noteworthy that, as the downlink is expected to use more resourcesthan the uplink, it is generally expected that resources will beallocated to downlink transmissions by default and, if appropriate, someof these resources may be used to transmit uplink data instead—forexample with a view to improving the efficiency of the system- as therewould be less uplink data to transmit in general. However, it isconceivable that in some examples the role of the uplink and downlinkmay be swapped. For example, as the use of the uplink time slot in TDDis expected to be relatively inefficient, the time slot may be used totransmit downlink signals as well. This is for example illustrated inFIG. 9 where the resources are allocated to uplink by default in therepresented time slot, but downlink signals may also be allocatedresources in this frequency band and time period. The teachingsdiscussed above apply equally to this further example of the presentdisclosure.

As discussed herein, the teachings of the present invention applicableare particularly applicable to NR technologies as these are expected touse relatively higher frequencies compared to previous technologies. Asa result the system bandwidth is also expected to be wider which rendersthe flexible modes described and considered in the present disclosuremore attractive. By way of example and for illustration purposes only,the system bandwidth size is expected to range from a few hundreds ofMHz to potentially several GHz. In some examples, the bandwidth may beof more than 200 MHz, 400 MHz or 500 MHz, and in some examples thesystem bandwidth may of the order of 1 GHz or higher Aside from thebandwidth size (which can affect the efficiency of the network whenhaving to switch the entire bandwidth to uplink/downlink), anotherimportant factor is the number of terminals currently served by the basestation. For example depending on the number of terminals and on thesize of their respective uplink and downlink traffic, the system mighthave to switch the entire (and potentially large) system bandwidthbetween uplink and downlink on a frequent basis. This could reduce theefficiency of the system, if for example a switch of the entirebandwidth to uplink is to transmit a small amount of uplink data—andeven more so if a large amount of downlink data is also to betransmitted. The network can therefore determine which mode is believedto be the most appropriate based on one or more of: a system bandwidthsize, a number of terminals, an expected size of uplink traffic to betransmitted and/or an expected size of downlink traffic to betransmitted.

Accordingly there has been provided an arrangement where the system canoperate mostly in a TDD mode but when it is determined that a full TDDoperation is unlikely to be efficient with respect to uplink (ordownlink) transmissions, for example due to a low traffic volume and awide bandwidth for the TDD resources, uplink resources may be allocatedin a set of (TDD) downlink resources. Accordingly, the system does nothave to switch the entire bandwidth to uplink transmissions. As theskilled person will appreciate, such a dynamic mode of operation willcome with potentially added overhead and/or allocate of resources asguardband(s) such that it will not always be found to be the mostefficient way of transmitting uplink data. In some examples, if theamount of uplink data to be transmitted is under a threshold, it can beestimated that the amount of lost resources by using a flexibleallocation as discussed herein will be less than the amount of resourceslost using a conventional TDD mode and thus the flexible mode will bepreferred. In case where it is estimated (using a threshold and/or anyappropriate calculation) that the amount of resources lost using aflexible operation will be more than compared to using a conventionalTDD operation, the uplink data can be sent using a conventional TDDmode.

Some examples of the present disclosure are discussed in the numberedparagraphs below.

Paragraph 1. A method of communicating data in a telecommunicationssystem comprising a base station and a plurality of terminals operableto communicate data to and from the base station, the system beingconfigured to transmit downlink signals using downlink resources in afrequency band and in a first time period, the method comprising:

upon identification of uplink data to be transmitted by a first terminalof the plurality of terminals, dynamically selecting a set of resourcesfor transmitting the uplink data, wherein selecting the set of resourcescomprises selecting a subset of the frequency band and a subset of thetime period of the downlink resources, the selected set of resourcesbeing based on the subset of the frequency band and the subset of thetime period;

notifying the first terminal of the selected set of resources;

the first terminal transmitting the uplink data using the selected setof resources.

Paragraph 2. The method of Paragraph 1 wherein the system is configuredto transmit all uplink signals using uplink resources in the frequencyband.

Paragraph 3. The method of any preceding Paragraph further comprisingidentifying additional resources of the downlink resources, theadditional resources being adjacent in frequency and/or time to the setof resources; transmitting only the uplink data in the selected set ofresources; and using the additional resources as a guard band and/orguard period for the uplink data transmission.

Paragraph 4. The method of Paragraph 1 or 2 further comprisingtransmitting first downlink data for at least a further terminal in atleast a part of the selected set of resources.

Paragraph 5. The method of any preceding Paragraph wherein notifying thefirst terminal comprises the base station notifying one or moreterminals of the selected set of resources.

Paragraph 6. The method of any preceding Paragraph wherein the downlinkresources comprises a reserved set of resources wherein the set ofresources is selected from resources of the downlink resources outsideof the reserved set of resources, thereby using the reserved set ofresources exclusively for downlink transmissions.

Paragraph 7. The method of Paragraph 6 wherein the reserved set ofresources is selected based on information about downlink and/or uplinktransmissions for a neighbouring base station so as to reduceinterferences between transmissions for the base station and theneighbouring base station.

Paragraph 8. The method of any preceding Paragraph wherein theidentification of uplink data comprises identifying uplink controlinformation to be transmitted by the first terminal.

Paragraph 9. The method of Paragraph 8 wherein the uplink controlinformation comprises one or more of acknowledgement information,channel status information, pre-coding matrix indicator, channel qualityindicator, noise information or power information.

Paragraph 10. The method of any preceding Paragraph wherein furthercomprising, based on one or both of the uplink transmission power of thefirst terminal and of the type of uplink data to be sent, the firstterminal transmitting an indicator, the indicator comprising one or moreof:

an indication of the uplink transmission power and/or the type of uplinkdata;

a preference to use resources of the downlink resources or resourcesother than the downlink resources.

Paragraph 11. A system for communicating data, the system comprising abase station and a plurality of terminals operable to communicate datato and from the base station wherein the system is configured totransmit downlink signals using downlink resources in a frequency bandand in a first time period, the system being configured to:

dynamically select, upon identification of uplink data to be transmittedby a first terminal of the plurality of terminals, a set of resourcesfor transmitting the uplink data, wherein the system being configured todynamically select the set of resources comprises the system beingconfigured to select a subset of the frequency band and a subset of thetime period of the downlink resources, the selected set of resourcesbeing based on the subset of the frequency band and the subset of thetime period;

notify the first terminal of the selected set of resources;

transmit from the first terminal the uplink data using the selected setof resources.

Paragraph 12. The system of Paragraph 11 wherein the system isconfigured to transmit all uplink signals using uplink resources in thefrequency band.

Paragraph 13. The system of Paragraph 11 or 12 further configured to

identify additional resources of the downlink resources, the additionalresources being adjacent in frequency and/or time to the set ofresources;

transmit only the uplink data in the selected set of resources; and

use the additional resources as a guard band and/or guard period for theuplink data transmission.

Paragraph 14. The system of Paragraph 11 or 12 further configured totransmit first downlink data for at least a further terminal in at leasta part of the selected set of resources.

Paragraph 15. The system of any of Paragraphs 11 to 14, wherein thesystem being configured to notify the first terminal comprises the basestation being configured to notify one or more terminals of the selectedset of resources.

Paragraph 16. The system of any of Paragraphs 11 to 15, wherein thedownlink resources comprises a reserved set of resources wherein the setof resources is selected from resources of the downlink resourcesoutside of the reserved set of resources, thereby using the reserved setof resources exclusively for downlink transmissions.

Paragraph 17. The system of Paragraph 16, wherein the reserved set ofresources is selected based on information about downlink and/or uplinktransmissions for a neighbouring base station so as to reduceinterferences between transmissions for the base station and theneighbouring base station.

Paragraph 18. The system of any of Paragraphs 11 to 17, wherein theidentification of uplink data comprises identifying uplink controlinformation to be transmitted by the first terminal.

Paragraph 19. The system of Paragraph 18 wherein the uplink controlinformation comprises one or more of acknowledgement information,channel status information, pre-coding matrix indicator, channel qualityindicator, noise information or power information.

Paragraph 20. The system of any of Paragraphs 11 to 19, wherein, thefirst terminal is configured to transmit, based on one or both of theuplink transmission power of the first terminal and of the type ofuplink data to be sent, an indicator wherein the indicator comprises oneor more of:

an indication of the uplink transmission power and/or the type of uplinkdata;

a preference to use resources of the downlink resources or resourcesother than the downlink resources.

Paragraph 21. A system for communicating data, the system comprising abase station and a plurality of terminals operable to communicate datato and from the base station wherein the system is configured toimplement the method of any of Paragraphs 1 to 10.

Paragraph 22. A method of communicating data in a telecommunicationssystem comprising a base station and a plurality of terminals operableto communicate data to and from the base station, the system beingconfigured to transmit uplink signals using uplink resources in afrequency band and in a first time period, the method comprising:

upon identification of downlink data to be transmitted to a firstterminal of the plurality of terminals, dynamically selecting a set ofresources for transmitting the downlink data, wherein selecting the setof resources comprises selecting a subset of the frequency band and asubset of the time period of the uplink resources, the selected set ofresources being based on the subset of the frequency band and the subsetof the time period;

notifying the first terminal of the selected set of resources;

transmitting the downlink data to the first terminal using the selectedset of resources.

Paragraph 23. A system for communicating data, the system comprising abase station and a plurality of terminals operable to communicate datato and from the base station wherein the system is configured totransmit uplink signals using uplink resources in a frequency band andin a first time period, the system being configured to:

dynamically select, upon identification of downlink data to betransmitted by a first terminal of the plurality of terminals, a set ofresources for transmitting the downlink data, wherein the system beingconfigured to dynamically select the set of resources comprises thesystem being configured to select a subset of the frequency band and asubset of the time period of the uplink resources, the selected set ofresources being based on the subset of the frequency band and the subsetof the time period;

notify the first terminal of the selected set of resources;

transmit from the first terminal the downlink data using the selectedset of resources.

Paragraph 24. A system for communicating data, the system comprising abase station and a plurality of terminals operable to communicate datato and from the base station wherein the system is configured toimplement the method of Paragraph 22.

Paragraph 25. A method of operating a base station in atelecommunications system wherein the base station is operable tocommunicate data to and from a plurality of terminals, the base stationbeing configured to transmit downlink signals using downlink resourcesin a frequency band and in a first time period, the method comprisingthe base station:

identifying uplink data to be transmitted by a first terminal of theplurality of terminals;

upon identification of uplink data to be transmitted by a first terminalof the plurality of terminals, dynamically selecting a set of resourcesfor transmitting the uplink data, wherein selecting the set of resourcescomprises selecting a subset of the frequency band and a subset of thetime period of the downlink resources, the selected set of resourcesbeing based on the subset of the frequency band and the subset of thetime period;

notifying the first terminal of the selected set of resources;

receiving the uplink data from the first terminal transmitted using theselected set of resources.

Paragraph 26. The method of Paragraph 25 wherein the base station isconfigured to receive all uplink signals in uplink resources in thefrequency band.

Paragraph 27. The method of Paragraph 25 or 26 further comprising thebase station identifying additional resources of the downlink resources,the additional resources being adjacent in frequency and/or time to theset of resources;

transmitting downlink data in resources other than the selected set ofresources and the additional resources; and

using the additional resources as a guard band and/or guard period forthe uplink data transmission.

Paragraph 28. The method of Paragraph 25 or 26 further comprising:

transmitting first downlink data for at least a further terminal in atleast a part of the selected set of resources.

Paragraph 29. The method of any of Paragraphs 25 to 28 wherein notifyingthe first terminal comprises the base station notifying one or moreterminals of the selected set of resources.

Paragraph 30. The method of any of Paragraphs 25 to 29 wherein thedownlink resources comprises a reserved set of resources wherein the setof resources is selected from resources of the downlink resourcesoutside of the reserved set of resources, thereby using the reserved setof resources exclusively for downlink transmissions.

Paragraph 31. The method of Paragraph 30 wherein the reserved set ofresources is selected based on information about downlink and/or uplinktransmissions for a neighbouring base station so as to reduceinterferences between transmissions for the base station and theneighbouring base station.

Paragraph 32. The method of any of Paragraphs 25 to 31 wherein theidentification of uplink data comprises identifying uplink controlinformation to be transmitted by the first terminal.

Paragraph 33. The method of Paragraph 32 wherein the uplink controlinformation comprises one or more of acknowledgement information,channel status information, pre-coding matrix indicator, channel qualityindicator, noise information or power information.

Paragraph 34. The method of any of Paragraphs 25 to 33 furthercomprising receiving, from the first terminal, an indicator, theindicator comprising one or more of:

an indication of an uplink transmission power and/or a type of uplinkdata;

a preference to use resources of the downlink resources or resourcesother than the downlink resources.

Paragraph 35. A base station for use in a telecommunications systemwherein the base station is operable to communicate data to and from aplurality of terminals, the base station being configured to transmitdownlink signals using downlink resources in a frequency band and in afirst time period, wherein the base station is configured to:

identify uplink data to be transmitted by a first terminal of theplurality of terminals;

dynamically select, upon identification of uplink data to be transmittedby a first terminal of the plurality of terminals, a set of resourcesfor transmitting the uplink data, wherein the base station beingconfigured to dynamically select the set of resources comprises the basestation being configured to selecting a subset of the frequency band anda subset of the time period of the downlink resources, the selected setof resources being based on the subset of the frequency band and thesubset of the time period;

notify the first terminal of the selected set of resources;

receive the uplink data from the first terminal transmitted using theselected set of resources.

Paragraph 36. The base station of Paragraph 35 wherein the base stationis configured to receive all uplink signals in uplink resources in thefrequency band.

Paragraph 37. The base station of Paragraph 35 or 36 further comprisingthe base station being configured to

identify additional resources of the downlink resources, the additionalresources being adjacent in frequency and/or time to the set ofresources;

transmit downlink data in resources other than the selected set ofresources and the additional resources; and

use the additional resources as a guard band and/or guard period for theuplink data transmission.

Paragraph 38. The base station of Paragraph 35 or 36 further configuredto:

transmit first downlink data for at least a further terminal in at leasta part of the selected set of resources.

Paragraph 39. The base station of any of Paragraphs 35 to 38 wherein thebase station being configured to notify the first terminal comprises thebase station being configured to notify one or more terminals of theselected set of resources.

Paragraph 40. The base station of any of Paragraphs 35 to 39 wherein thedownlink resources comprises a reserved set of resources wherein the setof resources is selected from resources of the downlink resourcesoutside of the reserved set of resources, whereby the base station isconfigured to use the reserved set of resources exclusively for downlinktransmissions.

Paragraph 41. The base station of Paragraph 40 wherein the reserved setof resources is selected based on information about downlink and/oruplink transmissions for a neighbouring base station so as to reduceinterferences between transmissions for the base station and theneighbouring base station.

Paragraph 42. The base station of any of Paragraphs 35 to 41 wherein thebase station being configured to identify uplink data comprises the basestation being configured to identify uplink control information to betransmitted by the first terminal.

Paragraph 43. The base station of Paragraph 42 wherein the uplinkcontrol information comprises one or more of acknowledgementinformation, channel status information, pre-coding matrix indicator,channel quality indicator, noise information or power information.

Paragraph 44. The base station of any of Paragraphs 35 to 43 furtherconfigured to receive, from the first terminal, an indicator, theindicator comprising one or more of:

an indication of an uplink transmission power and/or a type of uplinkdata;

a preference to use resources of the downlink resources or resourcesother than the downlink resources.

Paragraph 45. A base station for use in a telecommunications systemwherein the base station is operable to communicate data to and from aplurality of terminals wherein the base station is configured toimplement the method of any of Paragraphs 35 to 44.

Paragraph 46. Circuitry for a base station for use in atelecommunications system, the base station is operable to communicatedata to and from a plurality of terminals, wherein the circuitrycomprises a controller element and a transceiver element configured tooperate together to:

identify uplink data to be transmitted by a first terminal of theplurality of terminals;

dynamically select, upon identification of uplink data to be transmittedby a first terminal of the plurality of terminals, a set of resourcesfor transmitting the uplink data, wherein the base station beingconfigured to dynamically select the set of resources comprises the basestation being configured to selecting a subset of the frequency band anda subset of the time period of the downlink resources, the selected setof resources being based on the subset of the frequency band and thesubset of the time period;

notify the first terminal of the selected set of resources;

receive the uplink data from the first terminal transmitted using theselected set of resources.

Paragraph 47. Circuitry for a base station for use in atelecommunications system, the base station is operable to communicatedata to and from a plurality of terminals, wherein the circuitrycomprises a controller element and a transceiver element configured tooperate together to implement the method of any of Paragraphs 35 to 44.

Paragraph 48. A method of operating a base station in atelecommunications system wherein the base station is operable tocommunicate data to and from a plurality of terminals, the base stationbeing configured to receive uplink signals using uplink resources in afrequency band and in a first time period, the method comprising thebase station:

identifying downlink data to be transmitted to a first terminal of theplurality of terminals;

upon identification of downlink data to be transmitted to a firstterminal of the plurality of terminals, dynamically selecting a set ofresources for transmitting the downlink data, wherein selecting the setof resources comprises selecting a subset of the frequency band and asubset of the time period of the uplink resources, the selected set ofresources being based on the subset of the frequency band and the subsetof the time period;

notifying the first terminal of the selected set of resources;

transmitting the downlink data to the first terminal using the selectedset of resources.

Paragraph 49. A base station for use in a telecommunications systemwherein the base station is operable to communicate data to and from aplurality of terminals, the base station being configured to transmituplink signals using uplink resources in a frequency band and in a firsttime period, wherein the base station is configured to:

identify downlink data to be transmitted by a first terminal of theplurality of terminals;

dynamically select, upon identification of downlink data to betransmitted by a first terminal of the plurality of terminals, a set ofresources for transmitting the downlink data, wherein the base stationbeing configured to dynamically select the set of resources comprisesthe base station being configured to selecting a subset of the frequencyband and a subset of the time period of the uplink resources, theselected set of resources being based on the subset of the frequencyband and the subset of the time period;

notify the first terminal of the selected set of resources;

receive the downlink data from the first terminal transmitted using theselected set of resources.

Paragraph 50. A base station for use in a telecommunications systemwherein the base station is operable to communicate data to and from aplurality of terminals wherein the base station is configured toimplement the method of Paragraph 48.

Paragraph 51. Circuitry for a base station for use in atelecommunications system, the base station is operable to communicatedata to and from a plurality of terminals, wherein the circuitrycomprises a controller element and a transceiver element configured tooperate together to:

identify downlink data to be transmitted by a first terminal of theplurality of terminals;

dynamically select, upon identification of downlink data to betransmitted by a first terminal of the plurality of terminals, a set ofresources for transmitting the downlink data, wherein the base stationbeing configured to dynamically select the set of resources comprisesthe base station being configured to selecting a subset of the frequencyband and a subset of the time period of the uplink resources, theselected set of resources being based on the subset of the frequencyband and the subset of the time period;

notify the first terminal of the selected set of resources;

receive the downlink data from the first terminal transmitted using theselected set of resources.

Paragraph 52. Circuitry for a base station for use in atelecommunications system, the base station is operable to communicatedata to and from a plurality of terminals, wherein the circuitrycomprises a controller element and a transceiver element configured tooperate together to implement the method of Paragraph 48.

Paragraph 53. A method of operating a terminal in a telecommunicationssystem comprising a base station operable to communicate data to andfrom the terminal and a plurality of terminals, the terminal beingconfigured to receive downlink signals using downlink resources in afrequency band and in a first time period, the method comprising:

notifying the base station of an uplink data to be transmitted;

in response to the notifying, receiving an indication of a selected setof resources for transmitting the uplink data, wherein the set ofresources is selected based on a subset of the frequency band and on asubset of the time period of the downlink resources;

transmitting the uplink data using the selected set of resources.

Paragraph 54. The method of Paragraph 53 wherein the terminal isconfigured to transmit all uplink signals using uplink resources in thefrequency band.

Paragraph 55. The method of Paragraph 53 or 54 further comprisingreceiving a notification of identified additional resources of thedownlink resources, the additional resources being adjacent in frequencyand/or time to the set of resources wherein the additional resourcesserve as a guard band and/or guard period for the uplink datatransmission.

Paragraph 56. The method of any of Paragraphs 53 to 55 wherein receivingan indication comprises receiving an indication of the selected set ofresources transmitted to one or more terminals of the plurality ofterminals.

Paragraph 57. The method of any of Paragraphs 53 to 56 wherein thedownlink resources comprises a reserved set of resources wherein the setof resources is selected from resources of the downlink resourcesoutside of the reserved set of resources, thereby using the reserved setof resources exclusively for downlink transmissions.

Paragraph 58. The method of Paragraph 57 wherein the reserved set ofresources is selected based on information about downlink and/or uplinktransmissions for a neighbouring base station so as to reduceinterferences between transmissions for the base station and theneighbouring base station.

Paragraph 59. The method of any of Paragraphs 53 to 58 wherein notifyingthe base station of an uplink data to be transmitted comprisesidentifying uplink control information to be transmitted by theterminal.

Paragraph 60. The method of Paragraph 59 wherein the uplink controlinformation comprises one or more of acknowledgement information,channel status information, pre-coding matrix indicator, channel qualityindicator, noise information or power information.

Paragraph 61. The method of any of Paragraphs 53 to 60 wherein themethod comprises, based on one or both of the uplink transmission powerof the first terminal and of the type of uplink data to be sent, theterminal transmitting an indicator, the indicator comprising one or moreof:

an indication of the uplink transmission power and/or the type of uplinkdata;

a preference to use resources of the downlink resources or resourcesother than the downlink resources.

Paragraph 62. A terminal for use in a telecommunications systemcomprising a base station operable to communicate data to and from theterminal and a plurality of terminals, the terminal being configured toreceive downlink signals using downlink resources in a frequency bandand in a first time period, the terminal being further configured to:

notify the base station of an uplink data to be transmitted;

receive, in response to the notification, an indication of a selectedset of resources for transmitting the uplink data, wherein the set ofresources is selected based on a subset of the frequency band and on asubset of the time period of the downlink resources;

transmit the uplink data using the selected set of resources.

Paragraph 63. The terminal of Paragraph 62 wherein the terminal isconfigured to transmit all uplink signals using uplink resources in thefrequency band.

Paragraph 64. The terminal of Paragraph 62 or 63 further configured toreceive a notification of identified additional resources of thedownlink resources, the additional resources being adjacent in frequencyand/or time to the set of resources wherein the additional resourcesserve as a guard band and/or guard period for the uplink datatransmission.

Paragraph 65. The terminal of any of Paragraphs 62 to 64 wherein theterminal being configured to receive an indication comprises theterminal being configured to receive an indication of the selected setof resources transmitted to one or more terminals of the plurality ofterminals.

Paragraph 66. The terminal of any of Paragraphs 62 to 65 wherein thedownlink resources comprises a reserved set of resources wherein the setof resources is selected from resources of the downlink resourcesoutside of the reserved set of resources, thereby using the reserved setof resources exclusively for downlink transmissions.

Paragraph 67. The terminal of Paragraph 66 wherein the reserved set ofresources is selected based on information about downlink and/or uplinktransmissions for a neighbouring base station so as to reduceinterferences between transmissions for the base station and theneighbouring base station.

Paragraph 68. The terminal of any of Paragraphs 62 to 67 wherein theterminal being configured to notify the base station of an uplink datato be transmitted comprises the terminal being configured to identifyuplink control information to be transmitted by the terminal.

Paragraph 69. The terminal of Paragraph 68 wherein the uplink controlinformation comprises one or more of acknowledgement information,channel status information, pre-coding matrix indicator, channel qualityindicator, noise information or power information.

Paragraph 70. The terminal of any of Paragraphs 62 to 69 wherein theterminal is configured to, based on one or both of the uplinktransmission power of the first terminal and of the type of uplink datato be sent, transmit an indicator, the indicator comprising one or moreof:

an indication of the uplink transmission power and/or the type of uplinkdata;

a preference to use resources of the downlink resources or resourcesother than the downlink resources.

Paragraph 71. A terminal for use in a telecommunications systemcomprising a base station operable to communicate data to and from theterminal and a plurality of terminals, the terminal being configured toimplement the method of any of Paragraphs 53 to 61.

Paragraph 72. Circuitry for a terminal for use in a telecommunicationssystem comprising a base station operable to communicate data to andfrom the terminal and a plurality of terminals, wherein the circuitrycomprises a controller element and a transceiver element configured tooperate together to:

notify the base station of an uplink data to be transmitted;

receive, in response to the notification, an indication of a selectedset of resources for transmitting the uplink data, wherein the set ofresources is selected based on a subset of the frequency band and on asubset of the time period of the downlink resources;

transmit the uplink data using the selected set of resources.

Paragraph 73. Circuitry for a terminal for use in a telecommunicationssystem comprising a base station operable to communicate data to andfrom the terminal and a plurality of terminals, wherein the circuitrycomprises a controller element and a transceiver element configured tooperate together to implement the method of any of Paragraphs 53 to 61

Paragraph 74. A method of operating a terminal in a telecommunicationssystem comprising a base station operable to communicate data to andfrom the terminal and a plurality of terminals, the terminal beingconfigured to transmit uplink signals using uplink resources in afrequency band and in a first time period, the method comprising:

receiving an indication of a selected set of resources for transmittingthe downlink data, wherein the set of resources is selected based on asubset of the frequency band and on a subset of the time period of theuplink resources;

receiving the downlink data using the selected set of resources.

Paragraph 75. A terminal for use in a telecommunications systemcomprising a base station operable to communicate data to and from theterminal and a plurality of terminals, the terminal being configured toreceive uplink signals using uplink resources in a frequency band and ina first time period, the terminal being further configured to:

notify the base station of an downlink data to be transmitted;

receive, in response to the notification, an indication of a selectedset of resources for transmitting the downlink data, wherein the set ofresources is selected based on a subset of the frequency band and on asubset of the time period of the uplink resources;

transmit the downlink data using the selected set of resources.

Paragraph 76. A terminal for use in a telecommunications systemcomprising a base station operable to communicate data to and from theterminal and a plurality of terminals, the terminal being configured toimplement the method of Paragraph 74.

Paragraph 77. Circuitry for a terminal for use in a telecommunicationssystem comprising a base station operable to communicate data to andfrom the terminal and a plurality of terminals, wherein the circuitrycomprises a controller element and a transceiver element configured tooperate together to:

notify the base station of an downlink data to be transmitted;

receive, in response to the notification, an indication of a selectedset of resources for transmitting the downlink data, wherein the set ofresources is selected based on a subset of the frequency band and on asubset of the time period of the uplink resources;

transmit the downlink data using the selected set of resources.

Paragraph 78. Circuitry for a terminal for use in a telecommunicationssystem comprising a base station operable to communicate data to andfrom the terminal and a plurality of terminals, wherein the circuitrycomprises a controller element and a transceiver element configured tooperate together to implement the method of Paragraph 74.

The aspects of any of the above paragraphs may be implemented using anyrelevant technologies, for example using any one or more of a 3GPP, 3G,4G (LTE or other), 5G (NR or other) network.

REFERENCES

[1] Holma H. and Toskala A, “LTE for UMTS OFDMA and SC-FDMA based radioaccess”, John Wiley and Sons, 2009

1. A method of operating a base station in a telecommunications systemwherein the base station is operable to communicate data to and from aplurality of terminals, the base station being configured to transmitdownlink signals using downlink resources in a frequency band and in afirst time period, the method comprising the base station: identifyinguplink data to be transmitted by a first terminal of the plurality ofterminals; upon identification of uplink data to be transmitted by afirst terminal of the plurality of terminals, dynamically selecting aset of resources for transmitting the uplink data, wherein selecting theset of resources comprises selecting a subset of the frequency band anda subset of the time period of the downlink resources, the selected setof resources being based on the subset of the frequency band and thesubset of the time period; notifying the first terminal of the selectedset of resources; receiving the uplink data from the first terminaltransmitted using the selected set of resources.
 2. The method of claim1 wherein the base station is configured to receive all uplink signalsin uplink resources in the frequency band.
 3. The method of claim 1further comprising the base station identifying additional resources ofthe downlink resources, the additional resources being adjacent infrequency and/or time to the set of resources; transmitting downlinkdata in resources other than the selected set of resources and theadditional resources; and using the additional resources as a guard bandand/or guard period for the uplink data transmission.
 4. The method ofclaim 1 further comprising: transmitting first downlink data for atleast a further terminal in at least a part of the selected set ofresources.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein notifying the first terminalcomprises the base station notifying one or more terminals of theselected set of resources.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the downlinkresources comprises a reserved set of resources wherein the set ofresources is selected from resources of the downlink resources outsideof the reserved set of resources, thereby using the reserved set ofresources exclusively for downlink transmissions.
 7. The method of claim6 wherein the reserved set of resources is selected based on informationabout downlink and/or uplink transmissions for a neighbouring basestation so as to reduce interferences between transmissions for the basestation and the neighbouring base station.
 8. The method of claim 1wherein the identification of uplink data comprises identifying uplinkcontrol information to be transmitted by the first terminal.
 9. Themethod of claim 8 wherein the uplink control information comprises oneor more of acknowledgement information, channel status information,pre-coding matrix indicator, channel quality indicator, noiseinformation or power information.
 10. The method of claim 1 furthercomprising receiving, from the first terminal, an indicator, theindicator comprising one or more of: an indication of an uplinktransmission power and/or a type of uplink data; a preference to useresources of the downlink resources or resources other than the downlinkresources.
 11. Circuitry for a base station for use in atelecommunications system, the base station is operable to communicatedata to and from a plurality of terminals, wherein the circuitrycomprises a controller element and a transceiver element configured tooperate together to: identify downlink data to be transmitted by a firstterminal of the plurality of terminals; dynamically select, uponidentification of downlink data to be transmitted by a first terminal ofthe plurality of terminals, a set of resources for transmitting thedownlink data, wherein the base station being configured to dynamicallyselect the set of resources comprises the base station being configuredto selecting a subset of the frequency band and a subset of the timeperiod of the uplink resources, the selected set of resources beingbased on the subset of the frequency band and the subset of the timeperiod; notify the first terminal of the selected set of resources;receive the downlink data from the first terminal transmitted using theselected set of resources.
 12. A method of operating a terminal in atelecommunications system comprising a base station operable tocommunicate data to and from the terminal and a plurality of terminals,the terminal being configured to receive downlink signals using downlinkresources in a frequency band and in a first time period, the methodcomprising: notifying the base station of an uplink data to betransmitted; in response to the notifying, receiving an indication of aselected set of resources for transmitting the uplink data, wherein theset of resources is selected based on a subset of the frequency band andon a subset of the time period of the downlink resources; transmittingthe uplink data using the selected set of resources.
 13. The method ofclaim 12 wherein the terminal is configured to transmit all uplinksignals using uplink resources in the frequency band.
 14. The method ofclaim 12 further comprising receiving a notification of identifiedadditional resources of the downlink resources, the additional resourcesbeing adjacent in frequency and/or time to the set of resources whereinthe additional resources serve as a guard band and/or guard period forthe uplink data transmission.
 15. The method of claim 12 whereinreceiving an indication comprises receiving an indication of theselected set of resources transmitted to one or more terminals of theplurality of terminals.
 16. The method of claim 12 wherein the downlinkresources comprises a reserved set of resources wherein the set ofresources is selected from resources of the downlink resources outsideof the reserved set of resources, thereby using the reserved set ofresources exclusively for downlink transmissions.
 17. The method ofclaim 16 wherein the reserved set of resources is selected based oninformation about downlink and/or uplink transmissions for aneighbouring base station so as to reduce interferences betweentransmissions for the base station and the neighbouring base station.18. The method of claim 12 wherein notifying the base station of anuplink data to be transmitted comprises identifying uplink controlinformation to be transmitted by the terminal.
 19. The method of claim18 wherein the uplink control information comprises one or more ofacknowledgement information, channel status information, pre-codingmatrix indicator, channel quality indicator, noise information or powerinformation.
 20. The method of claim 12 wherein the method comprises,based on one or both of the uplink transmission power of the firstterminal and of the type of uplink data to be sent, the terminaltransmitting an indicator, the indicator comprising one or more of: anindication of the uplink transmission power and/or the type of uplinkdata; a preference to use resources of the downlink resources orresources other than the downlink resources.